The First Word: Ogden

On this day — the House moves on measures that would increase the amount of available revenue; following remarks by key Senators that the House’s austere budget proposal doesn’t have a chance in the upper chamber; and a key bill that would change the way sexually-based offenses are prosecuted in Texas gets overshadowed by the budget debate

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***Not so Austere, Anymore

Maybe it was all of the public outrage over massive cuts to public education and nursing homes. Maybe it was the fact that leading Republicans and Democrats in the Senate declared it dead on arrival. Either reason, or both reasons, or a combination of those two reasons plus others — the House budget committee moved on a series of measures straight from the California School of Budgeting, that would increase the amount of money available for the 2012-2013 budget by $3 billion. Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News Austin Bureau Chief (and budget maestro) Peggy Fikac reports:

Texas House budget-writers voted Monday to free up an additional $3 billion for key state services through such moves as speeding up tax collections, delaying payments and suspending the back-to-school sales tax holiday.

The bills next go to the full House, which Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, predicted could be willing to add $4 billion to $5 billion to a bare-bones spending plan it passed earlier this month.

“I think that we can come up with that number, and I think we can still pass the bill. It’s non-tax. It’s not additional fees than what was already assumed in the introduced bill,” he said.

While these moves will provide more money for budget writers, and they will help to mitigate the worst of the cuts, they do nothing to address the state’s long-term budget problems. Efforts to overhaul or replace the perpetually underperforming franchise tax, which has exacerbated the state’s structural deficit, still appear still appear to be politically unpalatable to the House.

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***School Funding Under Fire

The Chronicle/Express-News’ Gary Scharrer reports that the Senate wants to replace the current broken public school finance system by 2017. There are just a couple of rather small details getting in the way — no one agrees on how to fix the system; and, in case you haven’t heard, the state has a massive structural deficit because of funding mechanisms for public education haven’t performed to expectations.

Some prefer a goal to end the “target revenue” system based on what school districts received in 2006. That system has not been adjusted for inflation and has created huge funding disparities over the past five years. A goal of ending target revenue will keep pressure on lawmakers, Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said Monday.

But others argue that such a goal is meaningless until the state fixes its $5 billion-a-year structural revenue deficit.

Lawmakers don’t lack pressure, said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. “We lack courage, courage to admit that we made a mistake and how to fix it. … We’re not going after the core problem. All we can do is make the patient feel a little better while they are totally miserable, and we’re not doing the cure.”

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***Juries May Hear Uncharged Allegations

A bill introduced by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, could seismically alter the rules of evidence in rape trials in Texas. The bill, which was tentatively approved by the Senate, would allow prosecutors to present juries with similar allegations against defendants in rape trials, even if there were no previous convictions or charges to substantiate the claims. The Houston Chronicle’s Patti Hart and Brian Rodgers report:

The bill by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would allow the introduction of testimony about allegations of other sexual assaults to be admitted during the guilt or innocence phase of a trial if a judge — outside the presence of the jury — hears the evidence and deems it relevant.

The bill gives “greater resources to prosecutors and victims of sexual assault,” Huffman said Monday. Allowing testimony of similar sex offenses “brings Texas closer in line with federal rules of evidence,” she added.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, opposed the bill, arguing the measure would bring about “more wrongful convictions” because jurors will be afraid to acquit a defendant against whom they have heard multiple allegations. Jurors who are skeptical of the evidence of the case before them could feel compelled to convict “because he (the defendant) must have done something wrong,” West said.

“All of us want to be law and order and the whole nine yards,” West said. “But this is carving new ground in criminal jurisprudence. You ought to think long and hard, ‘is that fair?’?”